Method and program for cell barring in a cellular network

ABSTRACT

A method for controlling the access of a User Equipment (UE) to a public land mobile network (PLMN), the PLMN providing at least a service, the PLMN having at least one network cell, a control channel being broadcast within the network cell, includes: transmitting a barring factor information to the UE on the broadcast control channel within the network cell; transmitting a barring scaling information to the UE on a control channel independently of the barring factor information; and realizing, based on a combination of the barring factor information and the barring scaling information, an access control to the service with regard to the UE by deciding whether a specific access request of the UE to the service is accepted or rejected.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED-APPLICATIONS

This application is a U.S. National Phase application under 35 U.S.C.§371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2011/003806, filed on Jul.29, 2011, and claims benefit to U.S. Provisional Application No.61/369,177, filed on Jul. 30, 2010, and to European Patent ApplicationNo. EP 10007963.1, filed on Jul. 30, 2010. The International applicationwas published in English on Feb. 2, 2012 as WO 2012/013355 A1 under PCTArticle 21(2).

FIELD

The present invention relates to a method and a program for selectiveaccess control to shared resources in a cellular mobile network. Itenables the protection of the network in case of overload situations andis applicable to any cellular mobile network like: GERAN, UTRAN,LTE/E-UTRAN, LTE-Advanced, cdma2000, WiMAX, WiBro etc, wherein on a perconnection, or preferably on a per application or subscription basis,the access towards a shared medium can be controlled by the operator inorder to handle high load or overload situations, while maintainingservice operation in general.

BACKGROUND

In cellular mobile systems like GSM (but also its successors) the accessby a mobile to the network is normally performed via a shared resourcemedium, called Random Access Channel (RACH). In case the UE initiates avoice call, it first contacts the mobile network via the RACH andtypically gets subsequently a Traffic Channel allocated to be used forcarrying the voice call. In UMTS the initial phase is similar and theterminal, or user equipment (UE), gets a so-called Dedicated Channel(DCH) assigned to carry the voice call.

In order to prevent UEs from accessing an overloaded cell the concept ofAccess Classes was invented when GSM was specified [3GPP TS 22.011].This concept was also applied for UMTS. For this concept each SIM cardis assigned to a so-called “Access Class” which is configured by theoperator into the SIM card initially. 10 Access Classes are defined forordinary users [3GPP TS 22.011] and are normally equally distributed tothe population of SIM cards. Besides these Access Classes (AC) rangingfrom 0 to 9, a specific AC 10 is defined for Emergency Calls and 5specific ACs for operator and other purposes. AC 10 is not assigned to aSIM card, but used by a terminal when placing an emergency call. AC 11to 15 are assigned additionally to 1 Access Class out of 0 to 9 based onoperators policies. Details can be found in [3GPP TS 22.011].

In order to prevent access to a cellular basestation in certainsituations (i.e. overload situations) it is possible to bar access tothe network by blocking RACH access attempts using Access ClassBarring—for UMTS system this principle is described in [3GPP TS 25.331].A bitmap of 16 bit ranging from 0 to 15 is indicated on the BroadcastControl Channel of the UMTS cell. In case a specific portion (out of 0to 9) or defined ACs 10 to 15 should be disallowed for access, theappropriate bit is set to “access barred”.

Based on the equal distribution of AC between 0 and 9 it is possible torandomly block access to the cell in 10% steps (10% per individual ACbetween 0 and 9). As the assignment of ACs to SIM cards is randomly andalso the distribution of terminals in given cell is randomly, it iscurrently with prior art only possible to block a certain percentage ofaccess attempts randomly, without considering the subscription profileor the application requirements. As this was not a problem in formerdays where mobile networks were mainly used for placing voice calls, itis now required to enable a finer control over the access barring incase of load situation, due to the wide variety of different servicesand subscriptions in cellular networks.

When Enhanced-UTRAN (also known as “LTE”) was being defined, the conceptof access class barring was changed from a discrete assignment of AccessClasses to SIM cards and a new concept for determining if access to acell is applicable has been introduced. Details are defined, e.g., in[3GPP TS.36.331v9.2.0], paragraph 6.3.1, in relation toSystemInformationBlock Type 2. By doing this, the explicit relationshipbetween AC barring and Access Class assignment to a particular UE isremoved. Instead of equally distributed AC between 0.9, an AccessBarring Factor (ABF) concept has been defined, where the AccessProbability can be defined in finer than 10% steps and the barring onlyapplies in case the UE will really initiate an access toward thenetwork.

As can be seen in the current state of the art above, Access BarringInfo is provided in E-UTRAN System Information Block Type 2 with theInformation Element (IE) ac-BarringInfo. The struct consists ofac-BarringForEmergency, ac-BarringForMO-Signalling andac-BarringForMO-Data. The first relates to AC 10 barring for EmergencyCalls and can be set to “allowed” or “not allowed” (Boolean). The secondapplies specifically for establishment of signalling connections and wasfirst introduced with the standardisation of E-UTRAN due to the factthat Access Barring for Mobile Originated Data might be applicable witha high likelihood and thus without separation also access for signallingconnection would be prevented, resulting in the fact that a UE wouldalso not be reachable in certain situations. The latter applies forMobile Originated Data in E-UTRAN—which means any user data transmissionoriginating from the terminal as E-UTRAN only support a Packet ServiceDomain. Hence it also applies for voice services using a Voice over IP(VoIP) data bearer.

As can be seen from the state of art, besides a separation betweenEmergency Calls, MO-Signalling and MO-Data, no further distinction forAccess Class barring is applicable.

With the advent of smartphones—thus a wide range of applications withtotally different traffic characteristics—as well as with the new fieldof machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, characteristics of accessattempts to a cellular network have been completely changed. In contrastto former GSM systems, where placing voice calls by a human being wasthe main use case of mobile usage, now applications start to access andleave the cellular system much more frequently and thus new means ofcontrolling the access to shared cellular resources—like, e.g., theRandom Access Channel—of a cellular system are required. Especially twosituations need to be considered by a solution to improve the state ofthe art:

First, the access to a shared medium does not require human interactionanymore—i.e. if placing a voice call would have failed a couple oftimes, the user simply would give up, while applications simply continueto try to access if no further preventing means are implemented.

Second, with the growing number of M2M devices, a huge amount ofterminal devices in a given cell might request access to the sharedresources simultaneously (e.g. to report a status every full hour orwhen a huge amount of M2M devices moves through the network and performsa location area update).

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, the present invention provides a method forcontrolling the access of a User Equipment (UE) to a public land mobilenetwork (PLMN). The PLMN provides at least a service. The PLMN includesat least one network cell. A control channel is broadcast within thenetwork cell. The method includes: transmitting a barring factorinformation to the UE on the broadcast control channel within thenetwork cell; transmitting a barring scaling information to the UE on acontrol channel independently of the barring factor information; andrealizing, based on a combination of the barring factor information andthe barring scaling information, an access control to the service withregard to the UE by deciding whether a specific access request of the UEto the service is accepted or rejected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be described in even greater detail belowbased on the exemplary figures. The invention is not limited to theexemplary embodiments. All features described and/or illustrated hereincan be used alone or combined in different combinations in embodimentsof the invention. The features and advantages of various embodiments ofthe present invention will become apparent by reading the followingdetailed description with reference to the attached drawings whichillustrate the following:

FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a flow diagram for access barringaccording to the prior art.

FIG. 2 illustrates schematically the flow diagram for access barringaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates schematically a per User Equipment access barringprobability scaling.

FIG. 4 illustrates schematically a network cell of a public land mobilenetwork (PLMN) using the inventive method.

FIG. 5 illustrates schematically the effect of the access barring time.

FIG. 6 illustrates schematically a plurality of examples of accessbarring scaling information and/or access barring time information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a public landmobile network (PLMN), and a program for selective access control toshared resources in a cellular mobile network. The method according tothe present invention especially takes into account different traffic orapplication/user characteristics and overcomes the limited control ofthe access class barring scheme used in cellular networks like forexample GERAN, UMTS or E-UTRAN/LTE today.

In an embodiment, the present invention provides a method forcontrolling the access of a User Equipment to a public land mobilenetwork (PLMN), wherein the public land mobile network (PLMN) providesat least a service, the public land mobile network (PLMN) comprising atleast one network cell, wherein a control channel is broadcast withinthe network cell, the method comprising the steps of:

-   -   transmitting a barring factor information to the User Equipment        on the broadcast control channel (BCCH) within the network cell,    -   independently thereof transmitting a barring scaling information        to the User Equipment on a control channel, especially a        dedicated control channel,        wherein by means of a combined use of the barring factor        information and of the barring scaling information, an access        control to the service is realized with regard to the User        Equipment by deciding whether a specific access request of the        User Equipment to the service is accepted or rejected.

According to the present invention, a terminal specific scaling on theaccess barring factors (derived from the broadcast control channel ofthe cell) is applied. Thereby, it is advantageously possible to increaseor decrease the individual probability to gain access to a shared mediumin a cellular network.

According to the present invention, it is preferred that the accessbarring (or permitting, i.e. the access control) functionality can beapplied for a User Equipment being in a connected mode and also for aUser Equipment being in an idle mode.

Thereby, it is advantageously possible to apply the inventive method toa plurality of possible situations of User Equipment within a networkcell.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, thebarring scaling information is assigned specifically to the UserEquipment.

This means that it is not only possible that two different UserEquipments connected to a specific network cell of the public landmobile network (PLMN) can be treated differently with respect toperforming the access control, but it is possible to individually scalethe access permission rate (or access barring rate) of a specific UserEquipment within the network cell, i.e. it is possible to realize anaccess control on a “per User Equipment” basis.

According to the present invention, it is thereby advantageouslypossible that in addition to the general access barring factor (validfor all UEs in a cell) a UE individual access barring is applied byindividually scaling the general access barring factor.

The method is described by the following steps: access of a terminal toa shared medium in a cellular network by steps of:

-   -   determining if access restrictions to a shared medium apply        (also known as derive access barring factor from system        information broadcast),    -   classify the reason for access,    -   select an access barring scaling factor (i.e. a barring scaling        information) based on per User Equipment defined rules to be        applied,    -   apply the rules in order to determine if access to a shared        medium is possible,    -   access the shared medium if applicable or    -   determine when a new attempt to access the shared medium is        applicable (i.e. after which access barring time another access        request can be sent).

The UE specific access barring scaling factor is defined by the networkby means of dedicated signalling the access barring scaling factortowards a single UE or by defining the access barring scaling factor fora group of terminals determined by group specific signalling either witha group specific dedicated signalling or by broadcast control signallingmeans.

As a further preferable embodiment of the present invention it isproposed to define not just a per User Equipment access barring scalingfactor per device, but to define a group of access barring scalingfactors for a particular User Equipment. In this case the group ofaccess barring scaling factors is either applied on a per UE activatedQuality-of-Service level (also known as per Quality-of-Servicebearer/per Radio bearer) or on a per application level (e.g. determinedby an “IP source/destination/port triplet”) or—especially beneficial forM2M (machine to machine) communication devices—on a per “M2M serviceclass” basis. “M2M service class” basis in this sense is meant to be afunction which is defined for an M2M terminal device, where a pluralityof M2M services are running, each belonging to a particular “M2M serviceclass”. I.e. the plurality of non-realtime status updates, near-realtimealarm event notification or realtime-services with high bitrates.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, a furtherbarring factor information is transmitted to the User Equipment on thecontrol channel within the network cell, and independently thereof afurther barring scaling information is transmitted to the User Equipmenton a control channel, especially a dedicated control channel, whereinthe public land mobile network (PLMN) provides a further service,wherein by means of a combined use of the further barring factorinformation and of the further barring scaling information, an accesscontrol to the further service is realized with regard to the UserEquipment by deciding whether a specific access request of the UserEquipment to the further service is accepted or rejected.

Thereby, it is advantageously possible to control the access to thepublic land mobile network (PLMN) in a still finer manner, i.e. not onlydifferent User Equipments (s) can (at least in principle) beindividually controlled regarding the network access (on a “per UserEquipment basis”) but it is possible that different services (i.e. aservice and a further service) of the public land mobile network (PLMN)used by the same User Equipment can be treated differently by the publicland mobile network (PLMN). For example, it is possible that in asituation of high network usage, the access to voice functionality isrestricted for a specific User Equipment while the access to dataservice functionality is not or not as substantially reduced withrespect to that User Equipment. According to the embodiment discussed inthis paragraph, a different (cell-global) barring factor information isused for different services (i.e. a barring factor information regardingthe service and a further barring factor information regarding thefurther service).

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, a furtherbarring scaling information is transmitted to the User Equipment on acontrol channel, especially a dedicated control channel independentlyfrom the transmission of the barring factor information to the UserEquipment on the control channel, wherein the public land mobile network(PLMN) provides a further service, wherein by means of a combined use ofthe barring factor information and of the further barring scalinginformation, an access control to the further service is realized withregard to the User Equipment by deciding whether a specific accessrequest of the User Equipment to the further service is accepted orrejected.

Thereby, it is advantageously also possible to control the access to thepublic land mobile network (PLMN) in a finer manner than only on a perUser Equipment basis, i.e. not only different User Equipment(s) can (atleast in principle) be individually controlled regarding the networkaccess but it is possible that different services (i.e. a service and afurther service) of the public land mobile network (PLMN) used by thesame User Equipment can be treated differently by the public land mobilenetwork (PLMN). For example, it is possible that in a situation of highnetwork usage, the access to voice functionality is restricted for aspecific User Equipment while the access to data service functionalityis not or not as substantially reduced with respect to that UserEquipment. According to the embodiment discussed in this paragraph, itis possible and preferred according to the present invention that thesame (cell-global) barring factor information is used for differentservices (i.e. only the barring factor information is transmitted(cell-globally) and it is

-   -   either explicitly indicated by the public land mobile network,        or    -   understood by the User Equipment        that the barring factor information refers to different services        (i.e. the barring factor information acts as the barring factor        information regarding the service and acts as the further        barring factor information regarding the further service).

According to the standardization document 3GPP TS.36.331v9.2.0, theaccess control is performed using a barring factor information broadcastwithin the network cell to the User Equipments present. Preferably, thebarring factor information has a value between (and including) 0 and0.95. On attempting to request access to the public land mobile network(PLMN), the User Equipment draws a randomized number rand between 0 and1, and only in case rand is inferior to the barring factor information,access is granted (i.e. in case rand is superior to the barring factorinformation access is denied). The present invention proposes to use theappropriate barring factor information (which is global within theconsidered network cell) and an appropriate barring scaling information(which is or at least can be individual per User Equipment or group ofUser Equipments). According to a preferred embodiment, the random numberrand is multiplied with the barring scaling information and comparedwith the barring factor information. This means that a value of thebarring scaling information lower than one will increase the probabilityof access granted to the public land mobile network (PLMN) whereas avalue of the barring scaling information higher than one will decreasethe probability of access granted to the public land mobile network(PLMN). Other embodiments of the use of the barring scaling informationare possible according to the present invention. For example, thebarring scaling information can be added to or subtracted from thebarring factor information (and then the result of this operationcompared with the random number rand: an increase of the resultantnumber (by adding or subtracting the barring factor information and thebarring scaling information) will increase the probability of accessgranted to the public land mobile network (PLMN) and a decrease of theresultant number will decrease this probability. Alternatively, thebarring scaling information can be added to the random number rand, thusdecreasing the probability of access granted.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, afurther User Equipment receive the barring factor information on thecontrol channel within the network cell and an individual barringscaling information on a control channel, especially a dedicated controlchannel, wherein the User Equipment and the further User Equipmentbelong to one group of User Equipments within the network cell of thepublic land mobile network (PLMN).

Thereby, it is advantageously possible according to the presentinvention that for groups of User Equipments the same or a differentbarring scaling information can be assigned by the public land mobilenetwork (PLMN). For example, it is advantageously possible that aprioritized access to the PLMN is assigned to the group of UserEquipments within a cell that are more interesting to the networkoperator (so called gold customers) compared to the group of UserEquipments within a cell that are less interesting to the networkoperator. This can be reflected in prioritizing the access to thenetwork permitted to the so-called gold customers in relation to theaccess permitted to other customers.

According to still a further preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, generic barring time information is transmitted to the UserEquipment on a broadcast control channel, wherein a barring time scalinginformation is transmitted to the User Equipment on a control channel,especially a dedicated control channel, wherein after a specific accessrequest of the User Equipment to the service and for a period of timeeither

-   -   dependent on the barring time scaling information, or    -   based on a combined use of the generic barring time information        and the barring time scaling information,        the access to the service is specifically barred for the User        Equipment. According to a further modification of this        embodiment, a further barring time scaling information is        transmitted to the User Equipment on the control channel,        especially the dedicated control channel, wherein the public        land mobile network (PLMN) provides a further service, wherein        after a specific access request of the User Equipment to the        further service and for a period of time either    -   dependent on the further barring time scaling information, or    -   based on a combined use of the generic barring time information        and the further barring time scaling information,        the access to the further service is specifically barred for the        User Equipment.

Thereby, it is advantageously possible to realize an access controlregarding the barring time to the public land mobile network (PLMN)individually for different User Equipments (i.e. on a per User Equipmentbasis), and it is also possible to realize an access control regardingthe barring time for different services (service and further service)within the User Equipment. According to one alternative variant of thisembodiment, it is possible that the barring time scaling information (orthe barring time scaling information and the further barring timescaling information) is an information indicating a period of time, e.g.a period of time expressed in for example seconds and wherein thisbarring time scaling information (as a more specific information for aspecific User Equipment or for a specific service (or a further service)within or usable with a User Equipment) replaces the generic barringtime (broadcast on a broadcast control channel to all User Equipmentswithin the network cell). This variant of the embodiment is addressed bythe wording “dependent on the barring time scaling information”.Alternatively thereto it is also possible and preferred according toanother variant of this embodiment of the present invention that thebarring time scaling information (or the barring time scalinginformation and the further barring time scaling information) is used todetermine the time interval a User Equipment is barred by means of acombined use of both the barring time scaling information and thegeneric barring time information (broadcast to all User Equipmentswithin the network cell). This is, e.g., possible by using the barringtime scaling information as a factor by which the generic barring timeinformation is to be multiplied so that the barring time to be appliedis either longer than specified by the generic barring time (in casethat the barring time scaling information indicates a multiplicationfactor superior to 1) or shorter than specified by the generic barringtime (in case that the barring time scaling information indicates amultiplication factor inferior to 1). Alternatively, it is also possiblethat the barring time scaling information indicates a period of time,e.g. a period of time expressed in seconds and wherein this barring timescaling information is either added to or subtracted from the genericbarring time information. This variant of the embodiment is addressed bythe wording “based on a combined use of the generic barring timeinformation and the barring time scaling information (or the furtherbarring time scaling information)”.

According to still a further preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, a generic barring time information is transmitted to the UserEquipment on a broadcast control channel and a specific barring timeinformation on a control channel, especially a dedicated controlchannel,

-   -   wherein after a specific access request of the User Equipment to        the service, the access to the service is specifically barred        for the User Equipment based on a combined use of the generic        barring time information and the dedicated barring time        information, or    -   wherein after a specific access request of the User Equipment to        the service and to the further service, the access to the        service is specifically barred for the User Equipment based on a        combined use of the generic barring time information and the        dedicated barring time information, and the access to the        further service is specifically barred for the User Equipment        based on a combined use of the generic barring time information        and the further barring time information.

Thereby, it is advantageously possible to realize a flexible accesscontrol to the public land mobile network (PLMN).

According to the present invention, the service and/or the furtherservice are chosen of the set comprising a network service of a publicland mobile network (PLMN), the access to a shared medium, aQuality-of-Service level, and/or a M2M-service-class. Furthermore, it ispreferred according to the present invention that the service relates toa radio bearer identity and/or to a Quality-of-Service bearer identityand/or the further service relates to a further radio bearer identityand/or to a further Quality-of-Service bearer identity. One prominentexample of a service or a shared medium according to the presentinvention is the access of the User Equipment to the Random AccessControl Channel (RACH) of the public land mobile network (PLMN).

Thereby, it is advantageously possible provide a fine grained accesscontrol regarding different services or access modes of a specific UserEquipment.

According to still a further preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, an active state barring information is transmitted to theUser Equipment on a control channel, especially a dedicated controlchannel, wherein in case that the User Equipment is in an active orconnected state and dependent on the active state barring information,an access control to the service is realized with regard to the UserEquipment by deciding whether a specific access request of the UserEquipment to the service is accepted or rejected. According to anotherpreferred embodiment of the present invention, a further active statebarring information is transmitted to the User Equipment on a controlchannel, especially a dedicated control channel, wherein the public landmobile network (PLMN) provides a further service, wherein in case thatthe User Equipment is in an active or connected state and dependent onthe further active state barring information, an access control to thefurther service is realized with regard to the User Equipment bydeciding whether a specific access request of the User Equipment to thefurther service is accepted or rejected.

By means of providing the active state barring information (or theactive state barring information and the further active state barringinformation) to the User Equipment, it is advantageously possibleaccording to the present invention to also control the access of UserEquipment being in an active (or in a connected) state. This isimportant because due to the increase of mobile data application enabledUser Equipments, the proportion of those User Equipments that are not ina strictly speaking idle mode (but in either an active mode or in an atleast partly “connected” mode or in an at least semi-active mode, i.e.an operation mode where a packet data connection is activated or anInternet Protocol address active) is growing and thus it is importantalso to control the access to shared media or services of the publicland mobile network (PLMN) with regard to such non-idle mode UserEquipments. According to the present invention, this functionality isprovided

-   -   by means of the active state barring information, e.g. a flag        information on a per User Equipment basis, for controlling the        access of the User Equipment to (all the services of) the public        land mobile network (PLMN), or    -   by means of the active state barring information and the further        active state barring information, e.g. a flag information on a        per Quality-of-Service bearer basis, for controlling the access        of the User Equipment to the public land mobile network (PLMN)        for different services individually.

According to the present invention, it is also possible and preferredthat a (first) barring scaling information (or a (first) barring scalinginformation and a further (second) barring scaling information) istransmitted to the User Equipment and used for controlling the access ofthe User Equipment to the public land mobile network (PLMN) for the casethat the User Equipment is in the idle state (i.e. for the transition ofthe User Equipment from the idle state to the (fully) active state) andthat a (third) barring scaling information (or a (third) barring scalinginformation and a further (fourth) barring scaling information) istransmitted to the User Equipment and used for controlling the access ofthe User Equipment to the public land mobile network (PLMN) for the casethat the User Equipment is in the active (or connected) state (i.e. forthe transition of the User Equipment from the (partly) active (orconnected) state to the (fully) active state).

Accordingly it is possible and preferred according to the presentinvention that cumulatively or alternatively to using different barringscaling information for the transition of the User Equipment from theidle mode to the (fully) active mode or for the transition of the UserEquipment from the (partly) active (or only connected) state to the(fully) active state, also a different barring time scaling informationis used. This means that a (first) barring time scaling information (ora (first) barring time scaling information and a further (second)barring time scaling information) is transmitted to the User Equipmentand used for controlling the access of the User Equipment to the publicland mobile network (PLMN) for the case that the User Equipment is inthe idle state (i.e. for the transition of the User Equipment from theidle state to the (fully) active state) and that a (third) barring timescaling information (or a (third) barring time scaling information and afurther (fourth) barring time scaling information) is transmitted to theUser Equipment and used for controlling the access of the User Equipmentto the public land mobile network (PLMN) for the case that the UserEquipment is in the (partly) active (or connected) state (i.e. for thetransition of the User Equipment from the (partly) active (or connected)state to the (fully) active state).

The present invention also relates to a public land mobile network(PLMN) comprising at least one network cell, wherein a control channelis broadcast within the network cell, wherein the public land mobilenetwork (PLMN) provides a service, wherein the public land mobilenetwork (PLMN) transmits a barring factor information on the broadcastcontrol channel to a User Equipment within the network cell, and whereinindependently thereof the public land mobile network (PLMN) transmits abarring scaling information to the User Equipment on a control channel,especially a dedicated control channel, wherein by means of a combineduse of the barring factor information and of the barring scalinginformation, an access control to the service is realized with regard tothe User Equipment by deciding whether a specific access request of theUser Equipment to the service is accepted or rejected.

The present invention further relates to a program comprising a computerreadable program code for controlling an entity of a public land mobilenetwork (PLMN) according to an inventive method.

The present invention further also relates to a computer program productcomprising an inventive program.

The present invention will be described with respect to particularembodiments and with reference to certain drawings but the invention isnot limited thereto but only by the claims. The drawings described areonly schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, the size of someof the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn on scale forillustrative purposes.

Furthermore, the terms first, second, third and the like in thedescription and in the claims are used for distinguishing betweensimilar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequential orchronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used areinterchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that the embodimentsof the invention described herein are capable of operation in othersequences than described of illustrated herein.

According to the present invention, an improved method to control theaccess of User Equipments to a public land mobile network (PLMN) isdisclosed. FIG. 4 schematically shows an example of a public land mobilenetwork (PLMN) comprising a core network CN and a network cell 5. It isevident to a person skilled in the art that usually, the public landmobile network (PLMN) comprises a plurality of network cells comparableto the network cell depicted in FIG. 4. The network cell 5 comprises a,for example, an eNodeB eNB or at least an eNodeB is assigned to thenetwork cell 5 (which means that one eNodeB can also serve a pluralityof network cells 5). Usually, a plurality of User Equipments are presentwithin the geographical extension of the network cell 5. For the purposeof describing the present invention, the network cell 5 comprises a(first) User Equipment, a further (or second) User Equipment UE2 andanother (or third) User Equipment UE3. In the following, the realizationof enhanced access control, e.g. of a M2M device/or another UserEquipment terminal with an improved possibility for granting access to ashared medium of the public land mobile network (PLMN) as proposed bythe present invention is exemplarily explained for a cellular systemoperating according to the E-UTRAN (LTE) standard, but is alsoapplicable for any other cellular network using any other technology.

In order to allow a selective access control to a shared medium, i.e.for example the Random Access Channel (RACH) of LTE, it is proposed touse a per User Equipment access barring scaling factor (or barringscaling information) resulting in a differentiation between accessprobability between different devices, even if the general accessbarring factor is unique for all UEs.

An optimization of this embodiment allows a finer differentiation than aper User Equipment by defining a group of access barring scalinginformation, where the individual pieces of access barring scalinginformation are linked to either the activated Quality-of-Servicebearers/radio bearer or—especially advantageously for M2M communicationdevices, but not limited to—linked to “M2M service class”.

For the present invention the definition of the access barring scalingfactors is either defined with dedicated signalling (303), where theterminal in question is assigned either a single access barring scalingfactor applicable for any access to a cell, or a group of access barringscaling factors (304) individual for Quality-of-Service bearers or “M2Mservice class”.

A practical application of the inventive method is explained exemplarilyfor a per User Equipment access barring scaling information in thefollowing and represented in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, a schematicalrepresentation of the messages exchanged between a User Equipment UE, aneNodeB (or base station or base station transceiver), and a Core Networkof a public land mobile network (PLMN) is shown regarding thecontrolling access to the network.

It is proposed with the method described here, that an individual orparticular User Equipment UE is assigned with a barring scaling factor(derived from or triggered by, e.g. an indication message 301 from theCore Network to the eNodeB eNB, and a processing 302 at the eNodeB eNB,e.g. deriving the barring scaling factor) to be applied on the generalaccess barring factor and signalled to the UE using either a message 303using a dedicated control channel or a group message 304 using abroadcast control channel. In more detail, the indication message 301,e.g., comprises a content of the form “Radio Access Network ApplicationProtocol (RANAP) INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST ( . . . , subscriberprofile ID)”. Furthermore, the processing 302 at, e.g., the eNodeB eNBdetermines individual barring scaling information on a per UserEquipment basis (or on a per group basis or on a per service basis), forexample based on locally defined rules which scaling on access barringshould be applied. The message 303 or the group message 304 are meant tobe alternatives, i.e. the barring scaling information (and optionallythe dedicated barring time) is transmitted either to an individual UserEquipment (by means of using message 303 on a dedicated control channel)or to a group of User Equipments (by means of using group message 304 onthe broadcast control channel). In a processing step 305 the UserEquipment applies the barring scaling information (and optionally thededicated barring time information) according to the inventive method.In case the group based signalling is to be used, the UEs need to beassigned to a specific group, based on dedicated signalling, similar tothe flow with message 303.

According to the state of art as defined in [3GPP TS 36.331v9.2.0,chapter 5.3.3] the UE in case of initiating an RRC connectionestablishment procedure is requested to check the access class barringstatus from the system information broadcast type 2 (SIB2), check if theInformation Elements (IEs) “ac-BarringInfo” and the Information Element“ac-BarringForMO-Data” is present. If this is the case,

-   -   a random number ‘rand’ is drawn (‘rand’ is uniformly distributed        in the range: 0≦rand<1);    -   if ‘rand’ is lower than the value indicated by ac-BarringFactor        included in ac-BarringForMO-Data, then        -   consider access to the cell as not barred;    -   else:        -   consider access to the cell as barred;

As the network cell 5 (or the respective eNodeB entity) indicates theactual access barring factor in the range 0.0 to 0.95 [see 3GPP TS36.331, chapter 6.1.3] and the UE has drawn a uniformly distributedrandom number “rand” in the range 0≦rand<1, it knows if the access tothe cell for this attempt is allowed or not. This procedure isrepresented by means of a flow diagram in FIG. 1, where:

-   -   the procedure starts at a step 31 asking whether mobile        originated or mobile originating (MO) data are present (i.e.        whether access to a service or a shared medium of the public        land mobile network (PLMN) is necessary or not); in case such        data are present, i.e. an access is required, the program flow        branches to a step 32;    -   in the step 32, it is asked whether a timer T302 or a timer T303        is still running or not; in the affirmative case, the flow        branches to a step 50 corresponding to the denial of the        requested access to the public land mobile network (PLMN); if        none of the timer T302 or T303 are still running, the flow        branches to a step 33;    -   in the step 33, it is asked whether mobile originated data        should be barred or not; in the affirmative case, the flow        branches to a step 34; if mobile originated data should not be        barred, the flow branches to a step 40 corresponding to granting        the requested access to the public land mobile network (PLMN);    -   in the step 34, it is asked whether the User Equipment is        associated with access classes 11 to 15 or not; in the        affirmative case, the flow branches to a step 35; if the User        Equipment is not associated with access classes 11 to 15, the        flow branches to a step 36 corresponding to drawing a random        number ‘rand’;    -   in the step 35, it is asked whether one of access classes 11 to        15 are set to zero or not; in the affirmative case, the flow        branches to the step 40; if none of access classes 11 to 15 are        set to zero, the flow branches to the step 36 corresponding to        drawing the random number ‘rand’;    -   in the step 36, the random number ‘rand’ is drawn, ‘rand’ being        uniformly distributed in the range: 0≦rand<1; and the flow        branches to a step 37;    -   in the step 37, it is asked whether ‘rand’ is inferior to the        access barring factor information applied generally to all User        Equipments within the network cell 5; in the affirmative case,        the flow branches to the step 40; if ‘rand’ is not inferior to        the access barring factor information, the flow branches to a        step 38 corresponding to starting timer T303 (corresponding to        barring time information);    -   in the step 38, the timer T303 is started and the flow branches        to the step 50 corresponding to the denial of the requested        access to the public land mobile network (PLMN).

Given this current state of the art, based on the access barring factorapplying for all UEs in a given cell and the uniform distribution of therandom draw, the probability for each UE to gain access to this cell isexactly the same.

The proposed method according to the present invention comprises the useof an access barring scaling information (or an access barring scalingfactor or a barring scaling information) is applied by the individualUser Equipment after random draw. By doing so, it is possible toinfluence the random draw ‘rand’ based on a factor (or scaling item),i.e. the barring scaling information, defined by the network operator,in order to decrease or to increase the access probability individuallyper User Equipment. A flow diagram showing an embodiment of such aninventive method according to the present invention is schematicallyrepresented in FIG. 2, where:

-   -   the procedure starts at a step 11 asking whether mobile        originated or mobile originating (MO) data are present (i.e.        whether access to a service or a shared medium of the public        land mobile network (PLMN) is necessary or not); in case such        data are present, i.e. an access is required, the program flow        branches to a step 12;    -   in the step 12, it is asked whether a timer T302 or a timer T303        is still running or not; in the affirmative case, the flow        branches to a step 30 corresponding to the denial of the        requested access to the public land mobile network (PLMN); if        none of the timer T302 or T303 are still running, the flow        branches to a step 13;    -   in the step 13, it is asked whether mobile originated data        should be barred or not; in the affirmative case, the flow        branches to a step 14; if mobile originated data should not be        barred, the flow branches to a step 20 corresponding to granting        the requested access to the public land mobile network (PLMN);    -   in the step 14, it is asked whether the User Equipment is        associated with access classes 11 to 15 or not; in the        affirmative case, the flow branches to a step 15; if the User        Equipment is not associated with access classes 11 to 15, the        flow branches to a step 16 corresponding to drawing a random        number ‘rand’;    -   in the step 15, it is asked whether one of access classes 11 to        15 are set to zero or not; in the affirmative case, the flow        branches to the step 20; if none of access classes 11 to 15 are        set to zero, the flow branches to the step 16 corresponding to        drawing the random number ‘rand’;    -   in the step 16, the random number ‘rand’ is drawn, ‘rand’ being        uniformly distributed in the range: 0≦rand<1; and the flow        branches to a step 17;    -   in the step 17, it is asked whether a barring scaling        information is present; in the affirmative case the flow        branches to a step 21; otherwise, the flow branches to an step        18;    -   in the step 21, ‘rand’ is multiplied with the barring scaling        information (or access barring scaling factor) and the flow        branched to a step 22;    -   in the step 22, it is asked whether the scaled ‘rand’ number        (i.e. the product of ‘rand’ with the barring scaling        information) is inferior to the access barring factor        information applied generally to all User Equipments within the        network cell 5; in the affirmative case, the flow branches to        the step 20; if the scaled ‘rand’ number is not inferior to the        access barring factor information, the flow branches to a step        19 corresponding to starting timer T303 (corresponding to        barring time information);    -   in the step 18, it is asked whether ‘rand’ is inferior to the        access barring factor information applied generally to all User        Equipments within the network cell 5; in the affirmative case,        the flow branches to the step 20; if ‘rand’ is not inferior to        the access barring factor information, the flow branches to the        step 19 corresponding to starting timer T303 (corresponding to        barring time information);    -   in the step 19, the timer T303 is started and the flow branches        to the step 30 corresponding to the denial of the requested        access to the public land mobile network (PLMN).

The usage of the access barring scaling factor (or barring scalinginformation) is exemplarily explained by the following example:

In case 50% of the access attempts towards a network cell 5 should beblocked, the access class barring factor information would be set top50, i.e. to 0.5 or 50% (in the Information Element “ac-BarringFactor”as defined in [3GPP TS 36.331]). On initiation of a RRC (Radio ResourceControl) connection establishment procedure, a User Equipment would drawa random number ‘rand’ in the range 0≦rand<1, and thus with a 50%probability would get access on the shared medium of the network cell,e.g. the RACH (Random Access Control Channel). As the same random drawis implemented in all User Equipments or terminals, the distribution ofUser Equipment which gains access to the ones which don't is 50:50.According to the present invention, the inventive method proposes toapply a User Equipment specific access barring scaling factor (orbarring scaling information), e.g. on top of the random draw ‘rand’. Ifthe User Equipment is for example configured with a barring scalinginformation (or access barring scaling factor ABSF) of ABSF=0.5, thismeans that the probability of gaining access is doubled compared to theprevious case (where no UE specific access barring scaling factor (orbarring factor information) is used by the User Equipment). If thebarring scaling information is 0.1, it means that the probability is 10times higher (or at most 100%) than without a User Equipment specificaccess barring scaling factor. Likewise if the barring scalinginformation is 10, the individual probability to gain access to thenetwork cell 5 is 10 times lower than without an individual accessbarring scaling factor.

Depending on the range of the access barring scaling factor it ispossible to increase or decrease the probability of access for anindividual User Equipment by different factors. The exemplarily usedfactors are just for illustration and in principle any factor can beused. For practical reasons only a discrete number of access barringscaling factors should typically be defined, such as for example 0; 0.1;0.2; 0.5; 1.0; 2.0; 5.0; 10.0.

An enhancement of the embodiment of the invention provides in additionto the User Equipment specific barring scaling information an barringtime scaling information. The IE ac-BarringTime as defined in [3GPP TS36.331v9.2.0] provides a cell wide barring time in case a User Equipmenthas not been granted for access to the cell. Like the access barringfactor (or barring factor information) the value of this timer (i.e. theac-BarringTime) applies for all UE in the same cell without anypossibility to distinguish between the User Equipments. Hence all UserEquipments will wait for the next attempt equally long based on thesetting of the value. Hence in order to selectively control the accessbarring time for individual User Equipments it is proposed by thepresent invention that an barring time scaling information can bedefined by the network on a per User Equipment basis to allow anindividual control of the barring time per User Equipment. Similar tothe barring scaling information the barring time scaling information canbe either defined per User Equipment, or per Quality-of-Service Beareror per “M2M service class”, i.e. in case of a (first) service and afurther (second) service of the public land mobile network (PLMN) (orfirst and second Quality-of-Service Bearer or first and second M2Mservice class) the access control of the User Equipment can becontrolled not only on a “per User Equipment basis” but in a morefine-grained manner, namely “per Quality-of-Service Bearer or “per M2Mservice class”, by transmitting a barring time scaling information and afurther barring time scaling information and by applying the barringtime scaling information on the access control with regard to the(first) service and by applying the further barring time scalinginformation on the access control with regard to the further (second)service.

In FIG. 5, the effect of a barring time information is schematicallyshown. The barring time information 8 that can be individually set for aUser Equipment (by means of using either the barring time scalinginformation or by means of the combined use of the generic barring timeinformation and the barring time scaling information) corresponds to thetime that is necessary to elapse between a first access request 6 and asecond access request 7 of the User Equipment.

Alternatively instead of using a per UE access barring time scalingfactor which is based on the setting of the IE ac-BarringTime from SIB2it might be advantageously possible to define the concrete barring timeindividually for a given UE (FIG. 5 c). Likewise concrete barring timescan be configured per QoS Bearer or per “M2M service class” (530).

For the radio network node configuring the enhanced access barring (i.e.the eNB in case of E-UTRAN) local configurations might be used where theidentification which local configuration should be applied might bebased on UE specific signalling from the CN (see FIG. 3). A standardizedsolution is based on the Subscriber Profile ID (SPID) concept of 3GPP asdefined in [3GPP TS 23.401 and 3GPP TS 36.413]. This concept is alsodescribed in [EP 2119273].

Further an improved embodiment of the previously described method for UEspecific access barring control includes control information, either perUE or individually for each QoS Bearer or per “M2M service class”, ifthe access restrictions according to the access barring factor (and theoptional scaling) are also valid for the case the UE is in connectedmode rather than idle mode.

Finally as another improved embodiment of the previously describedmethod for User Equipment specific access barring control includescontrol information signalled to the User Equipment by any of theprocedures described to control individually on a per cell, per group ofUser Equipment, per User Equipment or per Quality-of-Service Bearer orper “M2M service class”, if the access barring and the optionallyprovided barring scaling information and/or the barring time scalinginformation also applies while the UE being in a connected or activestate rather then in an idle state.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in thedrawings and foregoing description, such illustration and descriptionare to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. Itwill be understood that changes and modifications may be made by thoseof ordinary skill within the scope of the following claims. Inparticular, the present invention covers further embodiments with anycombination of features from different embodiments described above andbelow.

The terms used in the claims should be construed to have the broadestreasonable interpretation consistent with the foregoing description. Forexample, the use of the article “a” or “the” in introducing an elementshould not be interpreted as being exclusive of a plurality of elements.Likewise, the recitation of “or” should be interpreted as beinginclusive, such that the recitation of “A or B” is not exclusive of “Aand B.” Further, the recitation of “at least one of A, B and C” shouldbe interpreted as one or more of a group of elements consisting of A, Band C, and should not be interpreted as requiring at least one of eachof the listed elements A, B and C, regardless of whether A, B and C arerelated as categories or otherwise.

1-14. (canceled)
 15. A method for controlling the access of a UserEquipment (UE) to a public land mobile network (PLMN), wherein the PLMNprovides at least a service, the PLMN comprising at least one networkcell, wherein a control channel is broadcast within the network cell,the method comprising the steps of: transmitting a barring factorinformation to the UE on the broadcast control channel within thenetwork cell; transmitting a barring scaling information to the UE on acontrol channel independently of the barring factor information; andrealizing, based on a combination of the barring factor information andthe barring scaling information, an access control to the service withregard to the UE by deciding whether a specific access request of the UEto the service is accepted or rejected.
 16. The method according toclaim 15, wherein the barring scaling information is assignedspecifically to the UE.
 17. The method according to claim 15, whereinthe public land mobile network (PLMN) provides a further service, andthe method further comprises: transmitting a further barring factorinformation to the UE on the broadcast control channel within thenetwork cell; transmitting a further barring scaling information to theUE on a control channel independent of the further barring factorinformation; and realizing, based on a combination of the furtherbarring factor information and the further barring scaling information,an access control to the further service with regard to the UE bydeciding whether a specific access request of the UE to the furtherservice is accepted or rejected.
 18. The method according to claim 15,wherein the public land mobile network (PLMN) provides a furtherservice, and the method further comprises: transmitting a furtherbarring scaling information to the UE on a control channel independentof the further barring factor information; and realizing, based on acombination of the barring, factor information and the further barringscaling information, an access control to the further service withregard to the UE by deciding whether a specific access request of the UEto the further service is accepted or rejected.
 19. The method accordingto claim 15, wherein a further UE receive the barring factor informationon the broadcast control channel within the network cell and anindividual barring scaling information on a control channel, wherein theUE and the further UE belong to one group of UEs within the network cellof the PLMN.
 20. The method according to claim 15, further comprising:transmitting a generic barring time information to the UE on a broadcastcontrol channel; and transmitting a barring time scaling information tothe UE on a control channel; wherein after a specific access request ofthe UE to the service and for a period of time based on the barring timesealing information or a combination of the generic barring timeinformation and the barring time scaling information, the access to theservice is specifically barred for the UE.
 21. The method according toclaim 20, wherein the PLMN provides a further service, and the methodfurther comprises: transmitting a further barring time scalinginformation to the UE on the control channel; wherein after a specificaccess request of the UE to the further service and for a period of timebased on the further barring time scaling information or a combinationof the generic barring time information and the further barring timescaling information, the access to the further service is specificallybarred for the UE.
 22. The method according to claim 15, wherein theservice is from the group consisting of: a network service of a PLMN,the access to a shared medium, a Quality-of-Service level, and anM2M-service-class.
 23. The method according to claim 15, wherein theservice relates to at least one of a radio bearer identity, aQuality-of-Service bearer identity.
 24. The method according to claim15, further comprising: transmitting an active state barring informationUE on a control channel; wherein realization of the access control tothe service is further based on the UE being in an active or connectedstate and based on the active state barring information.
 25. The methodaccording to claim 24, wherein the PLMN provides a further service, andthe method further comprises; transmitting a further active statebarring information UE on a control channel; and realizing an accesscontrol to the further service based on the UE being in an active orconnected state and based on the further active state barringinformation by deciding whether a specific access request of the UE tothe further service is accepted or rejected.
 26. A public land mobilenetwork (PLMN), comprising: at least one network cell, wherein a controlchannel is broadcast within the network cell; wherein the PLMN isconfigured to provide a service, transmit a barring factor informationon the control channel to a User Equipment (UE) within the network cell,to transmit, independently from the transmission of the barring factorinformation, a barring scaling information to the UE on a controlchannel; and wherein an access control to the service is realized withregard to the UE, based on a combination of the barring factorinformation and the barring scaling information, by deciding whether aspecific access request of the UE to the service is accepted orrejected.
 27. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computerexecutable instructions stored thereon for controlling the access of aUser Equipment (UE) to a public land mobile network (PLMN), wherein thePLMN provides at least a service, the PLMN comprising at least onenetwork cell, wherein a control channel is broadcast within the networkcell, the computer-executable instructions, when executed, causing thefollowing steps to be performed: transmitting a barring factorinformation to the UP on the broadcast control channel within thenetwork cell; transmitting a barring scaling information to the UP on acontrol channel independently of the barring factor information; andrealizing, based on a combination of the barring factor information andthe barring scaling information, an access control to the service withregard to the UE by deciding whether a specific access request of theLIE to the service is accepted or rejected.